Farmworkers who feed us panel on Sept. 10 at SF Ferry Bldg

August 15, 2009

DATE: Sept. 10, 2009 (Thurs.)

TIME: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

PLACE: Port Commission Hearing Room, second floor of the Ferry Building on the

Embarcadero (at Market Street) in San Francisco

EVENT: Panel: The Fruits of Their Labor

A panel about farmworkers and how your choices can support a just food system.

Truly sustainable food is not only healthy, humane, and environmentally sound,

it's socially just. In honor of Labor Day, CUESA is sponsoring a panel to

highlight the workers who feed us. Four labor experts will tell success stories

of advancing working conditions in the fields and discuss how concerned eaters

can stand up for fair food. They'll also address questions such as: Who are our

farm laborers, and what are their lives like? What can farm owners do to keep

their workers safe and happy, without breaking the bank? The panel will be

followed by a short reception with farmers' market snacks. The event is free

(donations gladly accepted) and open to the public.

Panelists:

Sandy Brown, co-owner of Swanton Berry Farm (the first organic farm to have a

contract with the United Farm Workers) and UC Berkeley doctoral candidate

researching the role of Fair Trade certification and labeling on agricultural

labor practices

Alida Cantor of California Institute for Rural Studies, a nonprofit research

organization focused on issues such as farm labor conditions, sustainable food

systems, and rural health

Alegria De La Cruz, staff attorney for Center for Race, Poverty and the

Environment, former directing attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance's

Migrant Farmworker Project in Fresno, and daughter of farmworker union

organizers

Maisie Greenawalt of Bon Appétit Management Company, which recently signed a

ground-breaking tomato purchasing agreement with the Coalition of Imokalee

Workers establishing labor requirements including fair wage, worker safety and

worker empowerment stipulations.

http://www.cuesa.org/events/calendar/#sept10

September 13, 2009

The People Behind Your Food

As a follow-up to Labor Day, CUESA hosted a panel focused on farmworkers,

featuring the experts quoted below.

When it comes to humanely raised animals and produce grown in accord with the

environment, many of today's eaters know exactly how to shop their values. But

what about eaters interested in knowing that workers are treated fairly and paid

a living a wage? While justice has become a core component in many definitions

of sustainability, it remains a far more elusive and challenging goal for

consumers. While we have international Fair Trade Certification for many foods

produced in the developing world, a domestic fair trade label is still in the

works.

And yet, labor is crucial to food production, especially in the case of

sustainable agriculture; the fewer chemicals involved, the more labor is

required to keep weeds and pests at bay. Still, says Sandy Brown, co-owner of

Swanton Berry Farm, " there's this idea that farmers simply produce food

themselves. There are some very small farms where that's the case, but in

actuality, 80-90% of our food is produced by hired workers. Wage labor is key. "

Many organic growers make it a point to treat their workers well, but in

actuality an organic label says nothing about labor standards. A 2008 study by

the California Institute for Rural Studies (CIRS) looking at farm labor

conditions on organic farms found that while some aspects of the work

environment were improved in an organic setting, others were not.

" Organic farms had better wages than conventional farms, and better bonuses, "

says Alida Cantor, a research associate with CIRS, " but conventional farms were

more likely to have health insurance and traditional benefits. " And while

workers on organic farms experience less exposure to toxic chemicals, they face

other challenges.

" Agriculture is the most dangerous occupation in the US, hands down, " says

Alegría De La Cruz, an attorney with the Center on Race, Poverty and the

Environment. " There are 32.5 fatalities per 1,000 workers. Last year there were

six heat-related deaths in California agriculture alone. "

De La Cruz's family has been involved with the struggle for farmworker rights

for decades, and she was encouraged early by Cesar Chavez himself to become a

lawyer. While she has seen the movement make significant gains via the United

Farm Workers (UFW) — including a number of laws protecting unionized workers

from abuse and providing them with basic rights such as unemployment insurance —

she believes the problems many farmworkers face are far from over.

" One of the biggest things impacting the ability to organize farmworkers, " says

De La Cruz, " is the rise in the use of labor contractors. " [bringing in third

party companies] has become a tactic used by employers to avoid liability and to

put another actor right in the middle to take `legal responsibility' so they

don't have to be accountable, " she says.

Instead of the current contractor system, she says, " the more we can do to

support small and medium employers with some of those costs of doing business —

like a Public Option in health care, for example — the more we can ensure a

kind of co-benefit to workers' rights. "

In the case of larger institutional food buyers, labor is even harder to

prioritize. " The anonymity of the supply chain is a huge challenge when it

comes to the produce we buy, " says Maisie Greenawalt, Bon Appetite Management

Company (BAMCO) Vice President in charge of strategic initiatives and

purchasing. " In the institutional system, there are so many stops that, say, a

head of lettuce makes between Salinas Valley and the school or museum where we

might end up serving it. There are multiple layers of packing and distribution. "

Nonetheless, BAMCO has prioritized labor issues, most notably by working with

the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to sign a code of conduct in their purchasing

agreement for fall and winter tomatoes. More recently, BAMCO created a

fellowship program to engage young activists in assessing the labor practices on

the farms the company works with through its Farm to Table initiative, to create

a set of best practices. " We want to establish a baseline set of priorities when

it comes to what workers need, " she says. " And it doesn't all have to cost

money, " she adds. " Treating workers like they are whole people who have hopes

and dreams and goals is a big part of it. "

On the other hand, the current state of immigration policy makes achieving those

goals less than easy. At Swanton Berry Farm, the only organic farm in the area

to work directly with the UFW and to create a co-ownership program for long-time

workers, these constraints are particularly clear.

" We're trying to do the right thing to promote longevity in the workplace and

respect the dignity of agricultural labor, " says Sandy Brown. " But if you want

to reward people for working for you for a long time and their ability to do

that is hindered by the immigration system, it kind of goes against the whole

pro-labor concept. "

Maisie Greenawalt agrees. " Some people see farmworkers' rights as an isolated

issue, " she says. " But I think it really speaks to our immigration policy.

Workers would be more willing to come forward and organize if they had legal

status. We have a food system and a set of prices that are based on low-paid

jobs where the worker takes on a fair amount of the risk. "

On the bright side, CIRS's Alida Cantor is heartened by the next generation of

labor activists.

She says: " A lot of college students and young people are making these

connections and caring a lot about it — like folks from the Real Food Challenge

and United Students for Fair Trade. They're coming at it less from a foodie

perspective, more from a social justice perspective; they see food systems

holistically, and that includes people. "

http://www.cuesa.org/

, " carmen_cebs " <carmen_cebs wrote:

>

> DATE: Sept. 10, 2009 (Thurs.)

> TIME: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

> PLACE: Port Commission Hearing Room, second floor of the Ferry Building on

the Embarcadero (at Market Street) in San Francisco

> EVENT: Panel: The Fruits of Their Labor

> A panel about farmworkers and how your choices can support a just food system.